Living Wage Campaignhttp://www.readthehook.com/taxonomy/term/5481/all
enUnsatisfied: Hunger strike ends with mixed messageshttp://www.readthehook.com/102949/hungry-no-more-strike-ends-living-wagers-battle
<p>After <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/g/unfed-cause-student-hunger-strike-enters-second-week#http://www.readthehook.com/files/imagecache/mainview/news-hungerstrike-blumenthal.jpg">a hunger strike</a> lasting up to 13 days and following <a href="http://www.virginia.edu/wages/strine120229.html">a statement from UVA </a>administration declining to raise the minimum wage at UVA to $13 an hour, activists for the Living Wage Campaign at UVA suspended the strike on March 1&#8211; but they're declaring victory nonetheless.</p>
<p>"The administration was forced to acknowledge this Campaign," says former hunger striker Tim Bruno, "and, more importantly, the crisis of low wages and the invisibility of contract workers on our campus."</p>
<p>A grad student who went 11 days without eating, Bruno points to national media attention and University-wide emails sent by President Teresa Sullivan and V-P Michael Strine as evidence of impact.</p>
<p>"We have engaged the UVA student body in an unprecedented way," Bruno notes in an email to a reporter. "We have educated it in an unprecedented way."</p>
<p>A statement on the website of the Living Wage Campaign promises a coming escalation: "To this administration, which has so far failed to provide moral leadership to our University, we have only this to say: get ready, because we are already here. We will hold you accountable for your promises."<strong><br /></strong></p>
<p>UVA laid down its position on February 29 in a statement by Strine, the school's chief operating officer, citing the challenges of "trying to&nbsp;hold down&nbsp;tuition,&nbsp;meet the growing demands for financial aid, grow student enrollment, advance learning and create knowledge, as&nbsp;we also serve the growing health care needs of patients across the Commonwealth."</p>
<p>While implicitly denying Living Wagers' demand, Strine did address some of the protesters' concerns, including giving "specific focus" to raises for the lowest-paid employees and examining the school's use of contractors.</p>
<p>The statement won immediate praise from the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, which suggested that the demand that UVA raise its minimum wage, if not illegal, was clearly unwise.</p>
<p>"Our Chamber," according to President Timothy Hulbert, "is skeptical about achieving any real positive economic effects from governmental wage-fixing regulations." Hulbert claims that UVA&#8211; as the area's largest employer&#8211; could create a detrimental domino effect on other area businesses.</p>
<p>"The unintended consequences of even the most well-intentioned prescription can be injurious to the university, its contractors, and our greater community," he writes in a open letter to President Sullivan. "The sound management of the University, with its strong commitment to enhance the lives of its entire workforce and our community, is a far better path."</p>
<p>Such sentiments haven't deterred the Living Wagers, including Bruno, who lost 14 pounds during his 11 days without food. While describing the physical and psychological tolls as "brutal," he says he'd probably muster the will to do it again.</p>
<p>"The University of Virginia has perpetuated economic injustice throughout its history," Bruno asserts. "This was, above all, a moral victory over a University that has the resources to make lives better but chooses not to."</p>
http://www.readthehook.com/102949/hungry-no-more-strike-ends-living-wagers-battle#comments_BreakingNewsFeaturedUVAhunger strikeLiving Wage CampaignNewsFri, 02 Mar 2012 15:05:43 +0000courteney102949 at http://www.readthehook.comUnfed for a cause: Student hunger strike enters second weekhttp://www.readthehook.com/102917/unfed-cause-student-hunger-strike-enters-second-week
<p>Exhausted and hungry but determined. That's how the 20 UVA students on a hunger strike to protest for a "living wage" at UVA describe themselves.</p>
<p>On Monday, February 27&#8211; a full 10 days since some of them ate&#8211; the <a href="http://www.livingwageatuva.org/">Living Wage Campaign</a> held a Rotunda-area protest to report results of an hours-earlier meeting with UVA President Teresa Sullivan.</p>
<p>Any hunger strikers hoping for a meal were disappointed.</p>
<p>"At this point, no real progress has been made," said UVA English professor Susan Fraiman, part of a five-person negotiating team that met with Sullivan.</p>
<p>On February 17, at the beginning of the hunger strike&#8211; the latest in a series of efforts to pressure UVA to raise its minimum wage to $13 an hour&#8211; Sullivan responded with a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.virginia.edu/president/speeches/12/message120217.html">university-wide email</a> in which she defended the University's pay structure by including the value of healthcare and other benefits.</p>
<p>"The actual current minimum starting pay for an entry-level employee including the average level of health benefits is $14.55 per hour, exceeding the students' demand by $1.55 per hour," Sullivan wrote. Adding in other benefits, she wrote, translates into a minimum pay of $17.07 to $20.20 per hour.</p>
<p>That calculation doesn't sit well with Living Wagers, who note on their website that Sullivan's own academic research as a sociologist explores the need for a living wage.</p>
<p>"It's an inaccurate distinction," said&nbsp;Deborah McDowell, director of UVA's Carter G. Woodson Institute and one of 300 faculty members petitioning Sullivan to raise compensation for the lowest paid employees. "You don't compensate a living wage by folding in the benefits. Benefits don't pay bills."</p>
<p>By 12:30pm, well over 100 people&#8211; students, faculty, and plain old Charlottesville residents&#8211; had gathered in front of the Rotunda bearing signs for the cause. Drivers on University Avenue frequently honked to show support, as did the drivers of multiple city buses.</p>
<p>"I'm not just doing it for the workers; I'm doing it for their kids," said first year student Marvin Nogueda, who described the challenges of his own childhood, when his mother worked for minimum wage, and he couldn't participate in many activities.</p>
<p>"I'm upset as a UVA alum when our university doesn't measure up to the standards of most top universities in the country," said recent grad school graduate Katy Blumenthal, who joined the hunger strike two days ago.</p>
<p>And Tim Bruno, a grad student who was among the first to shun food, described losing 14 pounds and his energy along with it.</p>
<p>"It's really taking its toll," he told the gathering, before urging the administration to listen to Living Wagers' demands. "All of us are still standing up for what's right," he said. "So please, don't sit down on the job."</p>
<p>Also present was UVA football player Joseph Williams, who brought national attention to the strike <a href="http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/why-im-hunger-striking-uva">when his story was published</a> on activist filmmaker Michael Moore's blog.</p>
<p>According to numerous online sources, the average human adult can survive up to 60 days without sustenance, but the toll can be brutal. After fat stores are depleted, a starving body begins cannibalizing lean tissue, and organ failure eventually results.</p>
<p>One renowned figure protesting this way was martyred Indian politician Mohandas Gandhi. In the summer of 1981, 10 Irish prisoners&#8211; members of the Irish Republican Army and the Irish National Liberation Army&#8211; died after starving themselves for between 46 and 73 days.</p>
<p>The UVA students are under medical supervision, they say, and one student told a reporter she ended her participation at a doctor's recommendation after she'd lost 15 pounds and a lot of hair after just eight days.</p>
<p>Campaign member and faculty member Fraiman suggested that the Living Wagers have found some "common ground" with the school administration, and another meeting might take place as early as Tuesday, February 28.</p>
<p>"We'll work harder for this than they'll work against it," a 10-day-hunger striker named Kyle shouted to the crowd.</p>
<p>While the group didn't gain entry to Sullivan's office, UVA vice president of student affairs Patricia Lampkin came outside and stood on the steps.</p>
<p>"I'm hungry, I"m thirsty," one hunger striker called out.</p>
<p>"Get some water, Robert," Lampkin wearily replied.</p>
http://www.readthehook.com/102917/unfed-cause-student-hunger-strike-enters-second-week#comments_BreakingNewsFeaturedUVAhunger strikeLiving Wage CampaignTeresa SullivanNewsMon, 27 Feb 2012 20:38:40 +0000courteney102917 at http://www.readthehook.com